Nicola Sturgeon accused of 'playing misogyny card' by former SNP women's convener

MsMcAllister, who quit the party’s National Executive Committee over the treatment she and others received, says the idea that Nicola Sturgeon is a “wife being blamed for her husband’s actions… won’t wash.”

Pressure is growing on the former SNP leader, in the wake of her estranged husband’s guilty plea to embezzling £400,000 of party funds, to answer questions about why concerns raised by NEC members back in 2021 about the party finances were “shut down”.

Nicola Sturgeon’s allies have said she is the victim of misogyny and is being expected to answer for Peter Murrell’s crimes.

Today at the Hay Festival, Ms Sturgeon herself said it was "not fair that I be held responsible for the crimes of somebody else.”

However Caroline McAllister, who was elected by SNP members as women’s convener but felt forced to stand down as a result of “hostility” on the party’s ruling body, told LBC that claims of misogyny are “nonsense”.

And she backed calls for a Westminster inquiry into the governance of the SNP under Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell.

She said: “I see the spin going on on social media - ‘oh, they're attacking a wife because of her husband's actions’ - you know, that's just nonsense that's put out there to dissuade people from pursuing their questions. Because accountability is not misogyny.

“I think there's an irony to it that this is the woman that would not engage with women around our rights, our concerns, about Self ID and the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.“There are valid questions to be answered, yet she's pulling out and indeed the little clique around her are pulling out the misogyny card.

“And on one level, you know, it's to be expected because it's a tactic that they've employed a lot in the past and has been successful to some extent, but I don't think that will wash anymore.”

She added: “I think people have tuned into what's going on. I think they're shocked and horrified about some of what's going on and they're right. And I include myself in that. There are questions that need to be answered.”

McAllister was in attendance at the SNP zoom meeting where Nicola Sturgeon warned people “to be very careful” about discussing party finances saying there was “no reason for people to be concerned.”

She said: “I don't remember the details of the statement that was read out by Allison [Graham] because what happened afterwards was so shocking.

“It was alarming, the three members who were resigning had serious concerns. Why were they being denied access to the accounts? But the reaction, the response was quite shocking.

“One member just launched into a tirade and the level of aggression was eye opening. And I remember sitting there waiting for Kirsten Oswald as the chair to stop it. We were all on a zoom call but it went on and on. She didn't stop it.

“And then there was a side chat bar on the screen and the first person to comment when he finished was Nicola Sturgeon. And her comment was, ‘well said, Ian’. And then that encouraged others to pile on Allison with the comments. It was shocking.

“I'd sat on committees and boards and I was a councillor for a brief spell of time. And you're always prepared for the opposition to have a go at you. I was not prepared for it to come from within the party that we were all committed to.”

Ms McAllister said she “struggled to understand their lack of curiosity”.

“As leader of the party there were serious issues raised, yet that wasn't her focus or the focus of the NEC, it was quite shocking. Some of us were trying to understand what was going on, there were no allegations, it was just a case of this has happened and this is concerning. It should have been a red flag, but it wasn’t.”

Asked about her time on the NEC more generally, McAllister described it as “difficult” and “hostile” and at times “menacing”.

"There was a group of us who, from day one, were referred to as the enemy within, that we were viewed as coming in to disrupt and destroy the party. And that was far from what our motivations were.

“It wasn't a pleasant environment. There were tactics employed to shut us down. Joanna Cherry had a massive target on her back. There were a number of people that took great delight in trying to marginalise her, keep her quiet.

“I recall one meeting shortly after the guy that had threatened her had been prosecuted and found guilty. She raised this and I was quite shocked because Nicola Sturgeon just cut right across her, spoke over her and basically dismissed her, saying, ‘oh we all receive abuse online’.

“And that was quite shocking from someone who professed to be a feminist to her fingertips. I understood there was no love lost there, however, to actually witness the coldness of that response was disturbing.

“That changed something for me. And I started to realise, you know, this isn't people that don't really know what's going on, this is by design. This is about shutting people up, closing them down, marginalising them. And then the reaction to Allison's statement, that kind of finished it for me. I felt that I couldn't be a party to this any longer.”

McAllister, who had joined the SNP after being involved in the Yes movement in the 2014 referendum, quit the party in March 2021, briefly joining the Alba Party. She is no longer a political party member.

She added: “You know, we were supposed to achieve independence because we could do things differently, we could do things better. And then to sit and witness a group of people that were really nasty, that really didn't consider the wellbeing of the party and the wellbeing of the Scottish nation was quite shocking.

“To be honest, if there was an independence referendum tomorrow, I would probably vote no, because all my trust and confidence in our politicians, especially the SNP, has absolutely disappeared.

“I remember in 2015, Nicola Sturgeon standing on Buchanan Gallery steps and she made a promise that women and girls would receive better treatment in Scotland. And I had two young daughters so this was just music to my ears. I was a Nicola Sturgeon fan. I believed what she said. Unfortunately, over the following years, she said an awful lot, made an awful lot of promises and sadly, very few came to fruition."

She said that for the SNP to survive there needs to be an independent investigation “if for nothing else, to prevent anything like that happening again.”

She added: ‘I think there needs to be a parliamentary inquiry and I think that people may have more trust and confidence if it was led from Westminster. I'm not convinced that if it was a Scottish parliamentary inquiry, that it would be robust, it would be transparent.”

However McAllister also said she feels some sympathy for Nicola Sturgeon - especially seeing her flee from TV cameras into a kitchen at a book festival event.

“On an emotional level I couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for her on that human level. On an intellectual level, I struggle because why would she shut down any discussion at the NEC about the statement that Allison had read out? Why was she not alarmed that the CEO, an employee of the party, was denying the committee charged with monitoring the funds and ensuring everything was okay, the information they needed?

“Why was she not alarmed when those three resigned? Or when Joanna Cherry and Douglas Chapman, the actual convener of that committee, resigned?

“The SNP and John Swinney say the police investigation answered all the questions. But the police didn't investigate the processes within the party, or how a small group of people could hijack a very vibrant party.”

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she did not shut down SNP figures who raised concerns about the party's finances when she was leader.

She has also emphatically rejected any suggestion that she knew about her estranged husband’s actions, and has said she feels “distressed” and “betrayed” and is coming to terms with having been married to a man she didn’t really know.

She also says they had separate bank accounts, and that she was questioned by Police Scotland but not charged.

The SNP has been contacted for comment.